Closures for containers



Oct. 9, 1956 F. woLFF 2,765,943

CLOSURES FOR CONTAINERS Filed Aug. l, 195o INVENTOR A Fen/VZ Ww FF.

ATTORNEY United States 2,765,943' CLOSURES FOR CONTAINERS Franz Wolff, Dragor, Denmark Application August 1, 1950, Serial No. 176,954

Claims priority, application Denmark December 30, 1949 1 Claim. (Cl. 21S-40) The present invention relates to a closure for sealing the neck of a receptacle, e. g. a bottle, consisting of a shell and a sealing element made from a high polymer substance and located in said shell and comprising a substantially at body portion and an annular rib integral with said body portion and having an inner circumference greater than the inner circumference of the mouth end of the said bottle or receptacle and arranged to face the said mouth end when the closure after the insertion of the sealing element in the shell is applied to the receptacle in question.

One object of the invention is to provide a closure of the kind referred to by means of which it is possible to obtain a sealing effect of a desired degree when applying the closure to the neck of the container by means of a closing pressure which is considerably lower than the closing pressure hitherto used for applying closures of the said kind to containers, as for instance bottles for beer and mineral water.

A further object of the invention is to provide a closure for bottles and like containers for carbonated liquids 3 which in the bottles or containers will develop a pressure which is higher than atmospheric pressure, the closure maintaining a permanent sealing effect through a considerably longer time irrespective of whether the bottle A or container is exposed to the influence of variable temperatures below a certain upper limit corresponding to the temperatures used for pasteurization as for instance as to beer.

According to the present invention the sealing elfect is obtained in causing a cold-flow of the said rib when the closure is applied to the bottle. To this end the sealing element or more especially the said rib is arranged to protrude beyond the bottom face as well as the top face of said at body portion and consists of a non-resilient solid, high polymer substance having a plasticity renderu ing said ribs capable of cold llow plastic deformation without the use of heat by the inuence only of the mechanical pressure by which the shell is forced against the annular surface of said ribs, facing the bottom of said shell, when the closure is applied to the receptacle.

It is not essential that the at portion, deformable.

As an example the plasticity of the rib may for instance be so arranged that the rib having e. g. a radial width of one millimeter and the outer diameter of 27 millimeter may be plastically deformed to fill out the space between the shell of the closure and the external surface of the mouth end of the bottle by the operation pressure of the shell against the said rib of about 80 kg.

In order to ensure the performance of the closure action of a bottle in the course of the shortest possible time, as for example a small fraction of a second, without overstraining the plasticized material during the plastic deformation of the rib when the closure is applied which means permanent the body portion, which means of the sealing member is plastically latented Oct. 9, 1956 to a bottle, the outer circumferential face of the ribs should preferably, however not necessarily tit closely against an inner circumferential face of the bent cylindrical portion of the shell prior to the attachment of the closure to the container, thus providing for the mutual natural elasticity and, therefore,

of the pressure of the shell against the sealing member which otherwise would be due to variations of temperature.

On the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a cross section through a sealing member according to the invention,

Fig. 2 a sectional view of the neck of a bottle and a closure according to the invention positioned on the top end of the bottle, and

Fig. 3 a sectional view of the neck of a bottle and a closure according to the invention in closed position upon the bottle.

Fig. 1 shows the packing having an outer peripheral flange-like rim 1 and a disk or a substantially flat body portion 3 connected to and integral with the rim 1. This packing which is made of a plastically deformable material is inserted in a closure cap 2 as shown in Fig. 2 and when the packing is pressed down on the outer face of the container 4, the packing will, by cold flow, produce a sealing effect for the container as shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 2 the dimension a is the distance of the inner diameter of the rib 1 while the diameter b indicates the distance of the inner diameter of the neck of the container.

As the packing consists of a solid high polymer substance having a plasticity at ordinary room temperature, the rib is thus capable of permanent plastic deformation by cold flow during the influence of mechanical pressure with which the shell is forced against the annular surface of the rib 1 facing the bottom of the closure when the latter is applied to the container.

I claim:

A cold ow closure for sealing the neck of a receptacle consisting of a shell and a sealing element located in said shell, comprising a substantially at body portion having a circumferentially disposed annular rib integral with said body and having an inner circumference greater than the inner circumference of the mouth of the said receptacle, the outer circumferential surface of said body portion being a cylindrical face fitting tightly against an inner circumferential face of the shell and in which the said rib protrudes beyond a bottom face and a top face of said body portion and consisting of solid high polymer substance having a plasticity at ordinary room temperature allowing said rib to be capable of permanent plastic deformation by cold ilow during the influence of the mechanical pressure with which the shell is forced against the annular surface of said rib facing the bottom of said shell, when the closure is applied to the container.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS (Other references on following page) UNTED STATES PATENTS Hoag Mar. 26, 1935 Trickey et a1 Mar. 2, 1937 Fergusson Apr. 20, 1937 Durough Apr. 15, 1941 Roth Dec. 16, 1941 McAlevy et al Oct. 30, 1945 4 Browne Ost. 14, 1947 Bllmeyer Nov. 25, 1947 Pfeifer Dec. 7, 1948 Tupper Nov. 4, 1949 yGenovse Jan. 8, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Dec. 23, 1942. 

